


Hourglass

by koridjinn



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Desert AU, Fantasy, Gen, M/M, arabia au, djinn akaashi, genie au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-03-08 00:18:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3188690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koridjinn/pseuds/koridjinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With a curse inflicted on the Rain Queen, the hero known as Bokuto must retrieve the bones of the garuda in order to save his kingdom. The last of his kind to have garuda blood flowing in his veins, this is a mission only he can accomplish.<br/>However, the desert is unforgiving, and Bokuto falls victim to the harsh climates. A pact is formed between him and the great sand djinn Akaashi, who will keep him alive during his journey, and take his soul when all is done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kiss of Life

**Author's Note:**

> have you watched magi; can you imagine akaashi looking like judal  
> i don't know what i'm doing with this  
> top tip: listen to magi soundtrack to this. no this is not a magi au.

Thirst.

As dry earth, dry sun, dry sand, dry tongue - as he lay, petrified by sky and sunshine, becoming brittle and cracked like deserted lakes, the sliver of hope in Bokuto's mind became harder and harder to hold on to. A laugh, more like a cough, escaped from his coarse throat. He found it humorous - he wanted it to be humorous - how a single expedition that he had been so riled up to execute had come to such a brief, bitter end.

It was funny, and he couldn't laugh.

He was going to die, and the impact that thought held failed to drive deep into his mind. He couldn't - he was fading away. 

Struggling made things worse - he knew this all too well, and yet he'd never followed his own advice. This time felt like the right time to be smart, for once.

_I'm dying._

_Do you want to die?_

A voice echoed in his mind, rooting him back into his body. It wasn't his; the voice was too smooth - rich like coffee, carrying a soft lilt that embodied a cool finger swiping across his cheek, sending phantom shivers down his spine.

_Who-_

_Do you want to die?_

What a strange voice, he thought. Was this the madness that befell those at the mercy of death? He did not know, did not  _want_ to know, but he was curious, and his fingers gripped white into the cliff that was known as life.

_I-_

_Do you?_

_I..._

The pain, or rather, the complete absence of pain drowned out by his desire to rest seeped into the corners of his mind. Like weights around his ankles, they begged him to slip into oblivion.

But he was not the sort that gave up on his goals to see the princess's face absent of tears; nor was he one to back down to a tyrant after losing his arm.

Bokuto held on.

_I don't want to die._

_When...would you like to die?_

What a strange question, he thought. Man did not wish to die. They wished to be nothing but gods, forever standing, forever alive. But men...they were nothing but men.

_I will die...when my time has come..._

A slight hesitation caught the speech in his mind. What a strange question, he continued to think. Ignoring his intuition, Bokuto made his resolve very clear.

_Now...now is not the time._

Pulled by a particular instinct, Bokuto opened his eyes, feeling the surface of his eyelids flaking off as he did so. 

His skin was caressed by a sudden gust, sending the sand around him dancing to a silent l'arabesque. They shimmered like flakes of gold in the midday sun, spinning and coiling, gathering into a figure above him. 

The sands formed a figure before dying itself into the colors of it's enchanter.

A being with the face of a human appeared - draped in silks of turquoise and plum, countless gold cuffs stacked along folded arms and diamond teardrops hanging from their lobes. Sand hovered like smoke from their hips down, still dancing, dancing, drawing Bokuto in.

Beautiful could not begin to describe the being's form.

"You wish to live?"

A voice that could command all the sands of time rang deep within his dulling ears. The djinn's words rattled in his bones, waking his resting soul.

"I do," he croaked, although his lips and his tongue were too stiff to form the words properly. He gave the djinn the most fierce gaze he could possibly give, one he hoped would deliver his desire to survive.

The djinn's sand separated itself from the earth, forming an ethereal tail, and drifted over to the dying man, hovering above him.

Bokuto found himself staring into a pair of teal eyes, emerald fires scorching their pitch black pupils. He could see lips forming and rising from the flames, whispering inaudible things, perhaps they were screams. Long, thick lashes grazed against his own irises - the nerves in his eyes were already dead.

"What would you do to live?" 

Ensnared by the djinn's piercing gaze, Bokuto could not decide on his words before they slipped from his lips. 

"Anything."

The djinn's expression remained fearsomely blank.

"Very well."

His chin was lifted by the djinn's index finger, a sensation likened to a thousand needles prickling the skin. Closer they moved, and Bokuto was going to drown in those eyes, drown in the energy flowing from them. He felt something press against his lips, peeling them apart, and a vapour so cool - he couldn't believe something so cold could exist - rush into his mouth, brushing against his tongue, driving itself like a river deep into his body.

A shiver erupted from the core of his soul, sending pulses of energy he could describe as nothing but the force that carried the earth throughout his entire being. 

Tears rushed from his eyes as he experience the reality of  _true_ healing - magic a human could never could never perform, never recreate anything close to. Sweat returned to the nape of his neck, dousing the roots of his hair sticky and wet. His skin returned to the suppleness as they had been before, and an intoxicating scent he had noticed before filled his nose, his mind, his lungs.

It was then, he realised, that his lips were pressed against the djinn's. And he also realised, that this was a kiss he wished would never end. 

But the piercing sensation beneath his chin soon disappeared as the djinn retreated, leaving a trail of cool mist. Bokuto rose with him, and the sands gathered beneath their master, swirling, swirling around them. Their arms returned, crossed, against their bare chest, shoulders pulled back in all their glory. The young man could not look away, still bewitched by those kohl-rimmed eyes, turning the turquoise electric.

"I am the djinn of these deserts." The sand around them quaked, as if they feared the power of their lord. "You stepped bravely into my sands in search of something, but I do not tell the desert to be forgiving or not."

"I-"

The djinn raised it's palm, silencing him. "You fell prey to my land, but wished not to be eaten. Thus, I offered you life, and in return, you said 'anything'."

Bokuto now understood why is intuition could not rest, why the gnawing sensation had appeared. The beating in his heart grew faster, as he realised this was not a pact that could ever be undone.

"I am Akaashi, Djinn of the Howling Sands. When your search is complete, your soul shall be mine."

 


	2. A Hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before the fall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i lied i didnt rot i just despaired a lot  
> here it is

"Are you mad? There's no way you can cross the Howling Desert alone."

Bokuto's ears pricked at the man's wavering tone. From the corner of his eyes he could see Kuroo, arms crossed over his chest, a compelling figure of crimson and ivory against his earthy room. 

He had never seen his friend's face as clenched as this before - the veins on his forehead popping, tendons in his throat straining. The larger man's bottom lip seemed to quiver ever so slightly; it was such a foreign look, something he would never display to anyone but him.

He tied his rucksack shut, the mouths of his many canteens jutting out from beneath the fabric.

"I have a duty, Kuroo." In a swift motion, he rounded up four four sacks with a piece of robe. "After all, I am Valkurah's hero." He dusted off his hands against his pants and faced his fellow general, flashing him a grin that spread from ear to ear. Kuroo grimaced.  

"You mean _we._   _We_ are Valkurah's heroes."

Bokuto laughed, slapping Kuroo on the back so hard the screws in his prosthetic arm shook. Kuroo sighed, raking his ring-bound fingers through his sooty hair. 

"Listen, if I could, I'd definitely go with you but-"

"There's no need for that." He swept open his left curtain and gestured Kuroo onto the balcony. His friend gave him a questionable look, before stepping outside, the smaller man right behind him.

Beneath them was a city kissed saffron and cinnabar by the sun itself, with bulbous spires climbing towards the skies. Civilians, like multicolored ants, flowed in and out of streets, children's shouts could be heard from miles away. A far-off woman was watering the wisteria which hung from her balcony, her neighbor hanging out cotton sheets in shades of emerald. 

"You see this?" Bokuto's right hand was placed on his friend's shoulders, while his left panned their view, the amount of glinting from his bracelets almost blinding Kuroo.

"Bokuto is this another one of th-"

"Shh. Let me have my moment." He cleared his throat once more and stepped before Kuroo, throwing open his shimmering bronze cape. 

"This is our home. Our city. Valkurah." He grasped his friend's chin in his hands, squeezing the man's cheeks into a pucker. "While I am gone, you will the one protecting it." 

The usual, playful glint in Bokuto's eyes had been replaced by gold, melting under the heat of a blazing fire. "Please believe in me, Kuroo."

The taller man's eyes widened. His face was released, and Bokuto's fleeting moment of seriousness was replaced by a one sided grin. He spun around the face the city once more, shielding his eyes with his hand. 

"I think I was born to do this," he muttered, barely loud enough for Kuroo to catch on to. 

His friend slipped back into the shade of his room, sandals chafing against the stone. Bokuto turned to face him, catching his eyes, slits of amber which reflected the light of the evening sun. 

"Go."

Kuroo flung his cape over his shoulder and held a palm out for his closest friend. Something hitched inside Bokuto's throat.

"But make sure you come back alive."

The two men clasped their hands together with a clap of thunder, Kuroo's fingers digging into Bokuto's wooden ones. Comrades, brothers, friends - they had tasted the same blood, the same despair. Those who survived a battle together would be bound by the covenant of bravery. 

As soon as the sun had gone to sleep, Bokuto was atop his camel Rakuen with court women trying to shove their parting gifts into his luggage. The men of his squadron lined before him, shields held upright, believing they could form some sort of wall to prevent their commander from leaving. When Rakuen climbed over them, they burst into tears.

He looked up at the palace, where two figures draped in blood red stood on their balcony, watching him. A single signal flare, gold, burst like glitter above them. Bokuto unsheathed his scimitar and raised it high above him. Fire erupted from his shoulder, spiraling up his wooden arm until his sword was covered in flames.

"For the Queen!" he cried. "And for Valkurah!" 

None of his men moved from their salutations even after he passed through the back exit of the fortress. In his heart, the fire of his promise continued to roar.

_He would return alive._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> jk lol listen to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEa4tuATCEk) instead  
> i will probably rot somewhere for several weeks before i continue this thanks 4 reading


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